Priming sugar and other questions

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arringtonbp

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Does priming sugar change the bitterness of the beer?

I have a 5 gallon batch of irish red ale from northern brewer that has just spent 4 weeks in primary. I took a hydrometer reading, and it's at 1.010. I tasted the beer from the hydrometer reading. It was pretty nice tasting up front, followed by a very strong bitterness. There's only 2 ounces of hops in the beer, and I added them according to the hop schedule. I also steeped the specialty grains until the water in my brew pot reached 170 F. Will this bitterness go away? What could have caused it?
 
First thing that pops to mind is: did you squeeze the grain bag out after steeping? Doing so releases pleasant little bastards called tannins (yes, same tannins found in red wine) which can cause a bitter/astringent aftertaste.

Aging can reduce the bitter punch quite a bit.
 
I actually didn't even squeeze it. I did hang it above the batch for a second to let the liquid inside seep out, then I discarded it.
 
Hmm...irregardless, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Hydro samples are "OK" as flavor indicators go, but nothing to judge the entire batch over. As I mentioned, aging and conditioning will more than likely mellow out the bitter aftertaste. :mug:
 
cool cool. Also, at this point the beer is pretty cloudy. Granted, the sample is coming from the bottom of the fermenter (bucket style with tap). I used whirlfloc, so I am hoping it will clear up in the bottles
 
bitterness will mellow with age... beer s still green give it it a few weeks? what was the hop & AA%
 
There's a few things you can do for cloudiness:

-Transfer to a secondary fermenter (if you haven't tried this yet, you basically rack everything but the sediment from your primary into another fermenter & let it continue to settle out)

-You can also cold crash your bottles. A few days after bottling, pop them in a cold fridge and let them sit for a few weeks to a month or more. This lets the sediment collect in more solid "chunks" in the base of each bottle, but doing so takes longer for the beer to carbonate.
 
Yeah I have heard that you don't really need secondary to have a clear beer. My plan is to bottle, let the beers carbonate, then put them in the fridge for 2 days before I drink them. (I'll probably start trying one every other day or so after 2 weeks of carbonating)
 
I condition bottle beers in covered boxes at room temp for an average of 4 weeks. But 5 weeks for an average gravity ale can be better yet,like an APA or IPA in my case. They seemed to peak at about 5 weeks. Then at least one week fridge time to get past chill haze,& get co2 into solution well. 2 weeks is even better for thicker head & longer lasting carbonation.
 
Hops: Willamette and US Goldings, 1 oz each

My question was just what can happen to the flavor and could the bitterness mellow significantly? Even at its current bitterness it would be drinkable by the time it finishes, but it wouldn't be *great*.
 
I've used those 2 together several times. They aren't very high AA%,so that shouldn't be too bad. When during the boil were they added?
 
Hops: Willamette and US Goldings, 1 oz each

My question was just what can happen to the flavor and could the bitterness mellow significantly? Even at its current bitterness it would be drinkable by the time it finishes, but it wouldn't be *great*.

After 4 weeks conditioning at room temp they should mellow quite well and taste pretty good ; fridg. for a few day will drop any remaining sediment & improve the flavor even more. The sample from the spigot gets you more hops bitterness than what is in the rest of the bucket. You can get past the chill haze by cooling longer (1 wk) Cheers:mug:
 
I looked up the kit's recipe instructions,& I don't like the fact that they want the grain steep to go up to 170F. Just sounds like tannins leached from the grain husks would be too easy to get at that temp. We steeped at 160F for 20 minutes,& no tannin bitter bite. I don't have software to plug it into,but Willamette being 4-6%AA,& goldings being 3-5%AA,I'd tend to think it's got no more bittering than the average commercial beer.
I'm betting on the tannins from the steep temp going up to 170f. That temp is good for sparge water,but I don't think it's as good for a steep temp. I was given to understand by BB that steep temps were 150-165F. I'm thinking of taking that down to 155F for 30 mins.
 
First thing that pops to mind is: did you squeeze the grain bag out after steeping? Doing so releases pleasant little bastards called tannins (yes, same tannins found in red wine) which can cause a bitter/astringent aftertaste.

Aging can reduce the bitter punch quite a bit.


This has been proven to be untrue. Too high of a temp causes tannins not squeezing the grain bag. The BIAB crowd all squeeze the grain bag.
 
I looked up the kit's recipe instructions,& I don't like the fact that they want the grain steep to go up to 170F. Just sounds like tannins leached from the grain husks would be too easy to get at that temp. We steeped at 160F for 20 minutes,& no tannin bitter bite. I don't have software to plug it into,but Willamette being 4-6%AA,& goldings being 3-5%AA,I'd tend to think it's got no more bittering than the average commercial beer.
I'm betting on the tannins from the steep temp going up to 170f. That temp is good for sparge water,but I don't think it's as good for a steep temp. I was given to understand by BB that steep temps were 150-165F. I'm thinking of taking that down to 155F for 30 mins.

The way that i did it was a little different. I put the pot of water on the stove, and placed the grainbag in it with the grains just after turning the stovetop on. I took the grains out before the water reached 170. So it steeped as the water heated up to 170, then I took it out.
 
As I understand it/did personally,a constant steep temp is better,between 150-160F. But doing it the way you did to that temp range is good as well. I hung my floating thermometer in the BK till it got to the temp we wanted,then turned the temp down on the stove to hold it there for the steep time.
 
I made this exact beer and mine was the same way, let it age a little bit. This was an awesome beer. One of my favorites.
 
I also made this beer. I let it get too warm on the first day of fermentation. I lowered the temperature, primary for 2 weeks, the taste then was off. I described it as sour but it was probably fusel alcohols. Then I put it in secondary for 4 weeks on advice that longer times might let it mellow. At bottling it was still a bit off. Maybe the same as you have. After 2 weeks it was a bit carbed and better. A week later it was much better and it got better after that. At 4 months they are all gone. It was not my best but was still very good.
 

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